An Artistic Odyssey: Exploring the World of Rebecca Brodskis

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to sit down with contemporary artist Rebecca Brodskis. We discussed her globetrotting beginnings, how they’ve informed her creative process, and what is to come. Read on to discover how Rebecca is leaving her mark on contemporary art.

Antonella, oil on linen, 2023

AH: Rebecca, take me back to the beginning of your professional life as an artist. I know that you grew up splitting your time between Morocco and France and have lived in more countries than one can count (Paris, London, New York, etc). How has living abroad influenced your artistic pursuits?

RB: Yeah, of course. I've always been painting. As a child, I would spend half of the year in Morocco and the other half in France. My grandmother was a painter, and I started painting in her studio in Morocco. She was the one who introduced me to art, so it's always been something that was a part of my life. My father also had a lot of friends who were painters; I was really just surrounded by painters and painting my entire life. 

After I finished high school, I attended Central Saint Martins, a quite popular art school in London. I went there without doing much research, and it was a bit of an unsuccessful period for me. This was back in 2006, and figurative painting was not so popular in those days. It appeared that the administration didn't really like figurative painting, and they tried to push me toward media installations and videos instead. I always sort of knew what I wanted to do, and I felt that they were leading me away from my aspiration which was so hard for me. So, I decided to quit art school. 

I found a new start in New York working for an artist. After a year, I became tired of it, so I moved to Berlin. I thought, okay, I don't want to go back to art school because it’s obviously not my thing. On the other hand, I was sure that I wanted to study something. I knew that I always liked to paint people and that I liked to study society through painting, so I enrolled in a Master's program in sociology at a university in Strasbourg. 

During my studies, I broke my foot and got back into painting. A friend bought me some supplies, and I started to paint in my room. It ended up being a good thing for my practice. Fast forward to 2010, I was living in Berlin and a friend of mine offered me a nice studio. I got back into going to the studio every day to paint and work. I was like, ‘‘Wow, I've been missing it so much!”. I even started exhibiting a bit in Berlin, but it was very underground with collectors and artists instead of galleries.

After restarting in Berlin, I just carried on and on and on. By my late twenties, I had moved to Tel Aviv and then back to Paris, where I really started working with galleries and exhibiting. I started taking things more seriously, and now it's been about five years that I’ve been working with galleries. I show a lot; I paint a lot –that is my everyday thing.

AH: Has moving so much had a particular effect on your work?

RB: I guess this idea of moving constantly and always being between cultures is a different way of living, and I kept doing it. I did a lot of residencies in different places, so my approach to painting is very sociological because I study society through my works. Instead of writing a thesis, I’m putting my findings into images.

Joana, oil on linen, 2023

 AH: How would you describe your work as an artist? How do you create?

RB: I'm a very traditional painter. I prime my canvas with rabbit-skin glue, a technique from the Renaissance. I only use oil; I don't use acrylic at all.

It's a long process, and it takes a few days. You have to raise the glue and prime the canvas over and over again. Then, you start on the linen straightaway. I always use oil, and I do a lot of layers. I would say it's almost a sculptural work because the painting is appearing layer after layer. It's very intuitive as well because I'm barely drawing. The pigments and colors are really what make the images come to life.

I'm not too into planning, so I prefer the process to be more intuitive. It is very long, which is why I tend to work on multiple paintings at a time.

AH: Earlier you spoke about taking a sociological approach to painting, can you expand upon that?

RB: I guess it's like a depiction of society, you know, it really varies. For example, when I was in residency in Senegal, I found inspiration from walking the streets– the daily scenes were really striking to me. Normally, I don't paint from photography. I only paint from my head. It’s like a diary of experiences. However, it depends on the project. Right now, I'm working on something for the Armory Show in New York based on female hysteria in the late 19th century. I was really obsessed with how they were treating patients in a public setting. I looked at archive pictures, and I did a whole slew of paintings from that. Either I travel and paint the people and culture surrounding me, or I dive into weird stories that I hear about. Then, I dig in and get archival pictures to inspire my work.

AH:  On that note, can you talk to me more about your new show at the Armory in New York? 

RB: It’s going to be a series of portraits of hysterical women. I looked into like the archives of the Hôpital Salpêtrière, a Parisian mental hospital in the late 19th century. A French doctor named Jean-Martin Charcot discovered that hysteria was neurological issue rather than an explicitly female sickness, as previously assumed since Antiquity. The notion of “hysteria” is interesting because it was always decidedly female, and then suddenly Charcot discovers that it was basically caused by speech repression. Women were repressed for so many years – of course they were more hysterical than men.

Charcot’s unique approach to solving hysteria was that he would hold public lessons where he treated patients with hypnosis. Even Freud was impressed and would come to observe. Because the subject of the Armory Show was “rewriting history”, I decided to reuse that material to create a body of work. I found it to be fitting.

Rinat, oil on linen, 2023

AH: I understand. In your latest group show at the Septième Gallery, you have a painting of a woman on a bright red background which I found particularly striking. I would love to know what motivates you to create these beautiful images daily.

RB: Well, I mean, painting is a bit like meditation or prayer. 

AH: How so?

RB: It just has its therapeutic effects. You spend a lot of time alone, reflecting. This is a very lonely practice, so it's really become a necessity to do it every day.

AH: Before we sign off, can you tell me the artistic process behind your most recent exhibit at the Septième Gallery in Paris?

RB: The subject matter was pretty open, and you can just reinvent and reinvent. I always try to depict people outside of contextualized landscapes. You know what I mean? I always try to go back to the essence of the person. I take a person in the moment and just depict that moment, which doesn't need to be fixed with any space or frames or whatever. I base my painting on the emotion and the feeling of the person. So that's why there's never really like anything recognizable around them. They are just floating in the world.

Rebecca in residency at the American Arts Center with African Arty in Casablanca, March 2023

Keep an eye out for Rebecca’s next exhibition at the Armory Show New York with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery. Check out her previous show at Septième Gallery Paris, here.

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